Domino: A Blog About Student Debt

It’s Time to Fight Back

By Seth Frotman | November 28, 2018

In the three minutes it takes you to read this blog, another six student loan borrowers will needlessly default on a student loan. These defaults will destroy their credit and jeopardize their financial future. It may even cost them their job.

And despite the far-reaching consequences for borrowers, the student debt crisis remains a “quiet crisis.” Today’s student debt crisis is not driven by storefront lenders springing up on corners in vulnerable communities, peddling financial products to those least able to afford them. Today’s crisis does not feature families forced from their homes because they fell behind on their mortgage. Today’s crisis doesn’t offer abandoned homes to point to.

But for millions of American families, student debt is a crisis.

We created the Student Borrower Protection Center to give a voice to these borrowers and to help leaders in and out of government who are ready to take action to end the student debt crisis.

For the last seven years, our team watched as millions of borrowers fell victim to a broken student loan system. We saw lives and livelihoods destroyed by companies trying to pad their profits at borrowers’ expense. And we fought back, using our positions in Washington to demand justice.

But then things changed.

We saw the federal government make the crisis even worse for these borrowers, for their families, and for their communities—siding with the same companies that drove millions to financial ruin.

Student loan borrowers deserve better. It’s time to fight back.

But we’re not doing it alone. From state attorneys general to legal aid clinics, from academics to advocates, we’re teaming up with everyone and anyone who cares about the millions of Americans struggling under the weight of historic student debt. Together, we launched our first projects and partnerships—the initial steps to build a nationwide effort to end the student debt crisis.

We’re just getting started.

We will continue to unveil new initiatives to protect student loan borrowers and partner with leaders in and out of government to help Americans with student debt.

Seth Frotman is the Executive Director of the Student Borrower Protection Center. He previously served as Assistant Director and Student Loan Ombudsman at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where he led a government-wide effort to crack down on abuses by the student loan industry and protect borrowers.